By Brian Bennett
Striker Adam Johnson was the match winner on Saturday as Ashington won their Ebac Northern League first division clash away at Crook Town.
Johnson, who had come on as a substitute for the injured Dan Maguire, struck in the 37th minute of the clash – but was quick to point out that the Colliers third victory on the trot was the all important factor: “It’s always nice to score but getting the three points was much more important,” said Johnson afterwards, “These away games are always hard especially when we are in quite a run of them but if we can just get through them, it’ll stand us in good stead to go forward.”
The 26 year old described his goal: “It was a great ball played through by Lee Mason and I just tried to get the first touch out of my feet so as to give me an angle to get the shot away. The ‘keeper (Ronan Makepeace) spread himself and I just put the ball through his legs.”
Johnson added that his performance was just ‘routine’: “I get up front and graft – that’s what I do best,” he said, “I try and put the pressure on high up the pitch and put the opposition under the cosh. Pace is my biggest attribute so I look to threaten in behind all the time.”
Blyth-based Johnson believes the Colliers will hand out a big defeat in the coming weeks: “We kept plugging away today and created a lot of chances including hitting the bar twice,” he said, “One day everything is going to click and we are going to hammer someone but we are just having a bit of a run in front of goal at the moment – other than that I think our performance was really good today.” Ashington’s assistant manager Andy Coyles said: “AJ (Adam Johnson) deserves a lot of credit. I thought his work rate was exceptional; his first touch to get the ball out of his feet before he let loose (for his goal) was excellent and he just caused the central defenders numerous problems. Yes he has come off – and sometimes that looks bad when a player has been ‘subbed on’ then ‘subbed off’ – but it was merely a tactical reason in the final three or four minutes and AJ deserved all of the plaudits which he received when he came off so fair play to him. His attitude is phenomenal both in training and in the games – he’s scored the winner today and let’s not forget that he also scored the clincher for us against Penrith three weeks previously.”